China’s and also many other countries cable TV network starts its two-way upgrade in the late nineties of the 20th century. Currently, across larges parts of China mainland, the cable TV network has not been conducted with directional upgrade, and correspondingly, the bandwidth users developed by the cable TV operators are not greatly increasing. However, at the costal advanced regions, such as Qingdao, Shangdong and Shanghai, the bidirectional HFC network upgrade is already conducted ahead of other regions. The bidirectional HFC network tries to adopt the CMTS and Cable Modem systems to develop bandwidth users. In total, there are nearly one million domestic users have already been fulfilled bidirectional upgrade through the EPON technology. For solutions related to the last 100m use access, the two technologies, EPON plus LAN and EPON plus EOC, are leading the tide of bidirectional network upgrade of the Radio, Film and TV industry. EPON is a network consisting mainly from such elements as EPON OLT, EPON ONU’s and Splitters.
The current main business of the Radio, Film & TV industry is its analog signal cable TV network. The cable TV network has tens of analog TV programs, while users watch programs only according to channels, that is, users have to watch the programs the TV station shows without any choice. The program’s video quality is not so good because of analog signals. Also, the service is relatively single toned, so it is hard for the Radio, Film & TV industry to share more economic benefits from the operators. All these need an urgent change.
The development of digital TV and the advancement of multi-network integration are unprecedented challenges and chances. The Radio, Film and TV operator should pay more consideration on how to provide users various, brand-new and interactive services than just on the digital upgrade and reform of previous TV service. The totally new technology revolution will definitely bring the Radio, Film & TV operator a vaster of business opportunities and will likewise lead it to be an operator of comprehensive services.
Currently, the main subject that the Radio, Film and TV operator faces is how to reduce the cost of management and maintenance for coping with the increasingly severe competition, that is, how to maintain existing users, promote multiple services and broaden bidirectional services based on the existing huge HFC network.
With this article we will start a series of blog posts introducing NGB – New Generation Broadcast Network concept.
